SOLDIERs of Radiance
by NintendoKnight1
Summary: Worlds collide, histories intertwine! Watch as the world of Final Fantasy 7 is rocked by its combination with the history of the World of Tellius from Fire Emblem! Cloud and Ike are introduced to each other as SOLDIERs of the Shinra Electric Power Company. With the various changes to history at large, events occur differently, some events are prevented, and new problems arise!


_**"SOLDIERs of Radiance"**_

 _ **Chapter 1**_

* * *

' _Hey, why don't we make a promise? Umm, if you get really famous and I'm ever in a bind… You come save me, all right?_ '

 _'What?'_

 _'Whenever I'm in trouble, my hero will come rescue me. I want to at least experience that once.'_

 _'What?'_

 _'Come on! Promise me!'_

 _'All right... I promise.'_

* * *

Cloud woke up in the middle of the night from the dream he just experienced. The girl he talked to in his dream—whom urged him to make a promise that he'll return to save her should she ever be in danger—it's been a year since he saw her last. He told her that he'd become strong as a SOLIDER. But joining SOLDIER was much harder than he thought. Instead of becoming one of those famous warriors who feared nothing and went down in legends, he ended up becoming a mere infantryman. A person who wouldn't even register as a blip on the radar.

He couldn't face her as he was now; he failed to keep his promise to her of becoming SOLDIER. He remembered that he was to be deployed on a mission in the morning... maybe, just maybe... he could prove himself worthy of becoming SOLDIER.

The young man rolled onto his side and drifted back into sleep, with hope beating deep in his heart of tomorrow's radiant dawn granting him the chance to grow strong.

The morning came and went. The young infantryman, Cloud, accompanied a first-class SOLDIER, along with a third-class SOLDIER, a few other fellow infantrymen, and a special agent known as a Turk to a location called Modeoheim. The party ended up having to trek through deep snow, seven inches of depth every time one put their foot in it, after their transport crash landed.

The man who lead this crew, the first-class SOLDIER, wore his black hair spiked backwards, and marched forward with a spring in each step. This man was named Zack, whom promptly turned and yelled at his crew members who were lagging behind him, "Yo! Don't fall too far behind!"

After he faced forward again, he noticed that two of his crew were right beside him. One was Cloud, one of the infantryman assigned to the mission. The other was the third-class SOLDIER sent to accompany Zack in his mission.

"At least someone's keeping up!" Zack stated, pleased to see a couple of his fellows keep pace with him. Cloud replied, "Well, I'm a country boy too." This caught Zack's attention immediately, so he asked, "From where?"

The three of them stopped in place and Cloud replied, "Nibelheim." Zack burst out in laughter at the sound of it.

Cloud asked in return, "How about you?" Zack was surprised at the question, "Me? Gongaga." he delivered with a smile. Cloud let out a chuckle at the name.

"Hey!" Zack tried, somewhat agitated at Cloud's reaction—though it wasn't different from Zack's reaction to hearing "Nibelheim"—"What's so funny about that?! You know Gongaga?"

"No," Cloud returned, somewhat reserved from Zack's more aggressive reply, "but it's such a backwater name."

"Ditto Nibelheim." Zack fired back, to which Cloud took offense and said, "Like you've been there."

"I haven't," Zack admitted, "but there's a reactor there, right? A Mako reactor outside of Midgar usually means..."

Cloud chimed in as Zack began to recite an apparently famous phrase in unison: " _...nothing else out there._ " The fact that they both knew this phrase gave them both common ground, to which they both shared a bit of laughter. After which, Zack turned over to one of their comrades further behind them and called, "Good news, Tseng! Me and..." Zack paused as he realized he didn't know the name of the infantryman he just had this conversation with.

The young man removed his helmet and introduced himself as _Cloud_. His blonde, spiky hair his most notable feature.

"Me and Cloud here are both backwater experts! Oh yeah!" After which, Zack, Cloud, and the third-class SOLDIER with them kept walking. A short ways behind them, the man in a rather nice suit—whose name was Tseng— called out as he paused for a moment to catch his breath, "Good. Carry on, then."

As the three walked, Zack pointed out the other SOLDIER with him and Cloud. "Of course, we can't forget this guy. He's been keeping up with us just as easily." Cloud glanced at this other member of SOLDIER. His uniform was similar to Zack's, though its color scheme was blue and not purple. This man was also rather young, and he had blue hair and wore a brown bandana around his head.

This blue-haired SOLDIER, whom had remained quiet the entire time, turned to look at Cloud and introduced himself, "I'm Ike."

"Nice to meet you." Cloud replied, before he was quickly given a harmless shove on his left shoulder from Zack.

"You should be real nice to Ike, Cloud," Zack stated, "he's the son of _Greil_."

" _Greil?! THE Greil?!_?" Cloud replied, as he remembered all the stories he heard as a kid of the _#1_ SOLDIER Shinra had at their disposal. The legendary warrior known as Greil, the fiercest swordsman in all of Tellius. The tales of Greil's exploits were well known, even to Cloud's hometown of Nibelheim. This man was a major role model for Cloud, in fact he was the leading example of what it meant to be SOLDIER.

"Yup!" Zack affirmed. "In fact, Ike has been trained by his father since he was little. So it's no wonder that he was able to become a third-class SOLDIER at the age of 16."

Cloud was shocked to learn that Ike was only one year ahead of him, and yet it seemed the gap between them was so far. Cloud barely managed to latch onto the lowest rung on the ladder, and yet Ike struck third from the top. Cloud began to wonder if nepotism had anything to do with it; if Greil had pulled any strings to get Ike where he is. He began to feel a twinge of jealously towards Ike.

"Don't let Zack's boastful claims fool you," Ike started, which caught Cloud's attention, "I only got to where I am because my father drilled into me every ounce of training I could endure. I'm not here because of some 'inherited potential', or anything that was done on my father's part. I'm here because of the endless days of hard work I was put through. I've been training every day since I was first able to hold a sword, and I've poured blood, sweat, and tears into taking after my father; so this position is merely the result of that effort."

For some reason, Ike's words put Cloud at ease. Not only has he found two members of SOLDIER, Zack and Ike, whom treated Cloud like a person—and not condescendingly—but Ike leveled himself with Cloud and made his position seem _attainable_.

"Do you..." Cloud hesitated for a moment, "do you think I can become SOLDIER?"

Zack and Ike both stopped and looked at each other.

"Sure you can!" Zack replied. Ike answered, "If you're willing to put the time, effort, and energy into it, it's more than possible for you. You've made it this far already, I'm certain you can push yourself further."

"Yeah, just take your time, okay? No one becomes SOLDIER overnight!" Zack excitedly added, which caused Ike to turn away bashfully. Zack quickly took notice and swiftly corrected himself, "Well, except Ike of course! But he's been trained by a first-class SOLDIER his whole life, so of course he'd be the exception! It's almost like he's been with SOLDIER for a number of years now, so it only make sense that he—!" Zack tried desperately to not make Cloud feel bad.

The young man let out a laugh, which reassured Zack and Ike that he was fine.

"Thanks, you two." Cloud told them with a sincere smile, as they continued walking.

From that day forward, these three had formed a powerful bond of friendship.

* * *

 **Author's notes: This first chapter is a tad short, but it's mostly meant to be an introduction to the story. This story is a convergence crossover of Final Fantasy VII and both Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, and Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn. If you don't have much info on the lore of these games, then much of the jargon and storylines won't make sense to you. I'm sorry, but I'd REALLY rather not have to explain most of that in writing.**

 **The story will follow the history of FF7 while introducing a large amount of substance from the Tellius games, which will influence, and outright replace, a large portion of occurrences in this story. So, if you are familiar with FF7, much of this should sound familiar, but don't expect it to turn out like the compilation's storyline did. In this particular instance, we see the the first meeting of Cloud and Zack, as seen in Crisis Core. However, there seems to be a major discrepancy between this and Crisis Core: the inclusion of Ike and Greil.**


End file.
